Week Twenty-Nine: Five Years

This week Mike and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. I still can't believe we've been married for so long. And I'm sure in five more years I'll be saying the same. It just keeps flying by. Especially now that O is here. This weekend we talked about our past anniversaries and what we did to celebrate, and we couldn't remember last year! I guess having a tiny baby in the mix really makes the ol' memory hazy.

Shortly after we were married we talked about how for our five year anniversary we would go on a trip. Because five years is a milestone! Because five years from now we will for sure have the money to do that! Because it's easy to get time off work together and travel!

HA.

So, as it turns out, we were a tad naive back then. Money and time off and all that aside, I can't imagine leaving O for a week long vacation right now! I don't think Mike would want to leave him behind either. Which is one of the main things that led us to our anniversary stay-cation!

We traveled from our home in St Paul to the exotic metropolis of Minneapolis! It was seriously wonderful though. Mike's mom was able to come to our house Friday evening and take care of Owen through Sunday.

We stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn where we were able to get a room upgrade and a couple free drinks for our anniversary. {Also, booked through AAA and got a better deal than any other website I was looking at!} It was downtown and super convenient for walking all over the place.

View from our hotel suite. 

Friday night we ate at Black Sheep Pizza and it was amazing as per usual. {A build your own with chicken, onion, & smoked mozzarella pizza is our favorite.} After our late dinner we found the hotel and relaxed, responsibility free, for the evening.

Ate at the bar at Black Sheep- so entertaining to watch people make pizzas. 

Saturday morning we slept in! {I was up at 7 but managed to fall back asleep until 8:30!} After we lazily got ready for the day we had missed the hotel breakfast, so we enjoyed some pizza leftovers and hit the town. We strolled on Nicollet Mall where we happened upon a bike parade complete with the most ridiculous costumes you've ever seen. As it turns out, there was a big bike/beer festival type thing going on in Loring Park on Saturday. We ended up checking that out later in the day.

One of my favorite bikes from the parade. 

Our first food stop was at Brit's Pub. It was great. They had Strongbow on tap which is one of my favorite ciders, plus the food was good and the view was great. We sat on the upper rooftop patio, which overlooked the main rooftop patio. On the main rooftop there was seating but also lawn bowling! It was super entertaining and we can't wait to come back with friends and play some time.

View of the lawn bowling. I couldn't manage to stand up for a decent picture, apparently. 

Yeah I definitely did a double take here. Fake person. 

After Brit's we decided to check out the artist created mini golf at the Walker. After a long walk to get there we strolled into the mini golf area to find that there was a 3 hour wait for a tee time! Hoppin' place. We got our tee time and headed back to the hotel to relax, recharge, and cool off. 

Sweaty selfie on our walk to the Walker. 

After we cooled down and drank some water we realized we were basically going to die without some ice cream. We had Izzy's in mind but couldn't make it all the way there and back down to the Walker for our tee time that we already paid for, so we decided to try Sebastian Joe's which neither of us had heard of before, just because it was pretty close to the Walker and Yelp said it was great. GOOD GOD. Best ice cream we've ever had. It was so creamy and decedent and delicious without that overly rich taste of instant regret. 

Ice cream finished, we headed over to pick up our clubs for our tee time. We decided to do both 9 hole courses because why not? Especially if we are going to wait 3 hours to play! So glad we did both because course B was by far our favorite. :)

Obligatory sculpture garden selfie. 

Here are some photos of some of our favorite holes. We will definitely be back to try this again next year when a new set of artist-created holes are installed. 

This was the entire Agusta PGA course laid on top of itsself- any hole counted. 

This hole was incredibly difficult and stupid. I'm including this photo because Mike's face is HILARIOUS. He was trying to get out of the photo. Fail. 

This one was cool because once you got the ball up top you put down your club and garden gnome foosballed your ball into the hole. 

The sky- Polaris was the hole. 

This was for sure the favorite for both of us. You had to stand and be the obstacle for your opponent. It got a little silly and a lot fun. 

Last hole was pretty cool. I was at a disadvantage, but we tied. 

Score card! We TIED. Course A? What course A? I didn't avoid posting that score card for any reason.  

After a sweaty golf game followed by a sweaty walk back to the hotel, we enjoyed cooling down with champagne and then getting ready for dinner. 

Ohhh dinner. We had so many ideas and suggestions from other people that we sat and stared at yelp reviews for at least 40 minutes. Finally I decided to just call a couple places and see if they even had reservations available. The first one that did was our winner! Zelo. 

Our dinner was absolutely lovely. Our waiter was a perfect mix of jovial and helpful and I enjoyed the wine and beer list on an ipad where you could tap on a drink to learn more about it. We took our waiter's suggestion of the crab cakes, and then also had Parmesan crusted shrimp and a prosciutto and arugula flatbread with mozzarella and balsamic. Our only regret was not ordering like, five orders of crab cakes. They were one of the best things I've ever eaten. They were a lemongrass baked crab cake with a vanilla plum sauce served with avocado slices. Have I mentioned they were amazing? ;)

I'm drooling all over again. 

Shrimp at dinner. 

Flat bread at dinner 

After dinner we went to Bario. We've been to the St Paul Bario before, but not this location. I love a good margarita, and their house marg is so good. I'm sure I could find something more mind blowing within the ridiculous tequila selection they have, but why bother when the cheap one is so so so good?? What can I say? I'm a classy gal. 

Supremely entertaining to watch the bartenders shimmy up this ladder, pour flights of tequila shots up there, and then carry the filled glasses back down the ladder.

So after a couple margaritas and a whole lot of laughter we headed over to the Shout House {dueling piano bar} to end the night. We both had a great time- that place is always entertaining. My favorite part was when a drunk college kid paid $60 to do a duet with one of the pianists. When he got up there he said he doesn't know how to play piano. Lol. They let him hit one key as fast as he could and he really took his task to heart, getting so into it. It was so, so entertaining. 

Sunday morning we were both excited to go home and see O, but took advantage of the hotel's breakfast first. It was a combination buffet and cook to order. It was kind of weird, but the food was good. We got a bunch of fruit, a waffle, and some coffee, then placed our order for eggs and bacon and such and they gave us a table number like at Noodles. Problem being that by the time they brought the hot food out I was almost full from the other stuff I was eating. Mike and I both had a problem with our eyes being much, much larger than our stomachs. 

After a quick stop at Caribou we were home to see our sweet little baby and he was so happy and excited to see us.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate five years. Can't wait to see what the next five bring. :) 

Kitchen Helper DIY

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As promised here, here is our DIY kitchen helper aka "the tower". Mike was very excited to take on this project- partially because he was excited for O to have a tower and partially because he was excited to use his saw.

First we purchased and built our base, which was a step stool from Ikea. Then, Mike ran to Home Depot for some 2x2s. He came home with dowels and hand railing. Definitely a step up in the aesthetics department, and much less work because hand railing and dowels are already nice and smooth. No sanding required. :)

Just testing it out.

Helping Daddy.

Mike cut the hand rail to be the 4 main posts as well as the 3 sided top railing. The dowels served as rails between the posts so O couldn't escape through the sides of the tower. He cut the 3 sided top railing at an angle so it fit together easily. 

Handsome dude excited to use his saw. 

Angled like a boss. 

Just taking some final measurements.

After setting everything up to make sure it looked good we realized that the 4th top railing that would enclose it completely had to be ditched. Thus the 3 sided top railing. The 4th rail would have kept him from falling backwards, but it also made for a very tight fit when he was standing inside it. So away it went. We are still debating adding some sort of rope or dowel or something removable to keep him from falling, but honestly after using the tower for 2 minutes he had it mastered and I really don't think he will fall.

{Ok, except for that one time he fell. But that was my fault. I was pulling something out of his hand and he flew backwards when he let go. Mom fail.}

"Helping" daddy.

Had to get those screws in. Over and over and over again.

Once all the rails were cut and ready to go, Mike drilled little holes in everything and fitted them with little pegs. He stuck them together with the pegs and wood glue, then let it dry with some patio bricks on top since we don't have clamps. {Handy, eh?} The next day he screwed the four main posts to the base and the top 3 rails together as well. Between the pegs and the wood glue and the screws I'd say we have a sturdy tower!

All told this project took like 5 hours or more. But that was including the time spent running back and forth to the Home Depot after we realized plan A {having 4 top rails} was a no-go and needing additional supplies {since we now needed hand rail cut straight rather than angled on two ends}. And it also includes all of O's "help" which could easily account for like an hour. 

In action: he can climb up and down like a pro! It is easily his favorite place to eat snacks. 

In action: helping make banana "cookies". {Recipe here- just scroll down a bit}

I realize that I didn't take as many step by step pictures as I had intended on taking, but hopefully you get the idea. I'm super happy we went with hand rails over 2x2s because the finished product looks so much more.... finished.

I'm pleased to report that the tower has eased 99% of our kitchen troubles {especially him stepping on my toes} and was well worth the time, effort, and cash we put into it. {The 1% is the dishwasher. Damn dishwasher is still a baby magnet. I swear he can hear it open from across the house.}

-H 

Week Twenty-Eight: Adventures

Holy cow, this week kind of flew by. I planned to do my week 28 blog as a DIY about the kitchen tower we made, but then I decided that was kind of cheating to do two posts about it. So instead I'll give you a quick rundown of the adventures we had this week and then do a separate step by step DIY post with the kitchen tower.

Sunday: Splash pad and playground in the morning with Grandma and Grandpa Stott before they headed back to Mankato. {They were in town to watch O while we were at the Imagine Dragons concert Saturday night--awesome show!} And then we dabbled in some kitchen tower building for most of the day. Seriously. But more about that in another post. ;)

Monday: Playdate! Got to spend some time at the Children's Museum with my friend Steph and O's future girlfriend Evelyn. It is so fun to have playdates with babies the same size.

Music at the Rooftop Art Park.

Tuesday: Lazy day at home cleaning the house. O even insisted on helping me pull the garbage can in from the curb. Follow that up with some sand table action and some naked time, and you have yourself a pretty baller Tuesday {ha}.

Best toy ever: straws in a seasoning shaker.

  Wednesday: I WORKED OUT! Go me. First time in ages {not counting wrangling a toddler on the daily} but I still haven't made it a habit. Baby steps.

After that O and I had a playdate walking around a park and then playing at the park with my friend Katie and her little guy, Solomon. We couldn't decide on a park to go to so we picked at random and it was a sad, sad little park. The babies seemed to have fun though. Perhaps they aren't as judgey as we are! ;)

Swings! Chill little guys.

Thursday: Mom group meeting is our Thursday tradition and is always a good time. This week O was {as I recall, and I could very well be looking back with rose colored glasses} so good and gentle with the other babies! He wants to hug them and love them but he usually loves too hard and ends up tackling them and making them cry. We're working on it.


Friday: Pool play date at Como Pool with several moms and babies. Owen had the best day of his life. Face plant after face plant in the water and every time he got up happy as could be, laughing and smiling. He loved the water slides, water table, and the fountains too. We had such a blast that we went back with Mike a few days later. :)

Saturday: Cheers to the freakin weekend-  and a long one for Mike since he has Monday off too. We went for a walk at Lake Phalen and out to dinner with our Osaka groupon. :) O was pretty fascinated with the hibachi show and must have really enjoyed his food too because he hardly made a mess on the floor and that never happens at restaurants! 

Watching our chef at Osaka.

After dinner we went to the mall to play and O found a friend :)

 

It was a good week but a busy one! Do any of you ever finish a week and go WOW--did we really do all that stuff? Not to mention the fact that I had to look back at picture on my phone to help me remember! ha!

-H

Week Twenty-Seven: Kitchen Helper

Do you have a kitchen helper? And by that, I mean a tiny human who won't let you do ANYTHING in the kitchen without them "helping."

O has always been a kitchen helper. Even when he was just Quasimodo crawling around the house, he had to be in the kitchen if we were and he *had* to be under someone's foot. Or in the dishwasher.

And he has not changed. Not even a little bit. Now he can start the dishwasher {which Mike and I realized recently when it was already on the drying cycle and neither of us had started it}, climb the stove and reach the knobs, and open the trash can. He has been such a beast lately that we have tried baby-gating him out of the kitchen entirely, but I've decided the whines and cries and screams and throwing things isn't worth it. So I let him in the kitchen and he stands on my feet while I do whatever I'm doing. That shit hurts. His clammy little feet pull at the skin on top of my feet in the worst way. It puts me over the edge so freaking fast. And that just can't be our new normal. It can't be.

This morning as he whined and stomped on my feet sending me into a stressed out rage I realized what needed to happen. He needs to see what I'm doing. You're probably out there in internet land reading this going- duh- of course that's what he needs! How did you not think of that!?

Well, I figured it out eventually, and that's what counts.

I put O up on our step stool. It didn't let him reach the counter all that well and I had to have one hand on him the whole time so he didn't fall. It was kind of a headache. I decided in a quick hurry that the step stool wasn't an option. Instead we need one of those "learning tower"/ "kitchen helper" things. So I whipped out my phone and started browsing Amazon. Holy. Shit. The cheapest ones were well over $100! Are you kidding me?? I swear, anything wedding or kid/baby related is just a racket. All of it. They overcharge for everything because they know that we, the idiot consumers, will pay for it. Because we need it. I digress.

Buying one of these things is definitely not in the budget, so I bounced from Amazon over to Craigslist. Where I could buy one for..... $95. Wow. What a deal? Apparently these puppies hold their value.

Plan C is officially in the works for this weekend. A quick DIY version built on top of an ikea step stool. Hopefully it is exactly what we need to calm our kitchen helper down and give us some sanity back. I'll for sure post a step by step when we get it done! :)

For now, here are some pictures of our pancake making adventures with the step stool.

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-H

Week Twenty-Six: DIY Envy is Great Motivation

I've been meaning to make O a busy board for months. The idea to make one popped into my head before his first birthday. Things were busy though and it got put on the back burner. Then summer vacation came and I thought I'd make it happen. Well, it hasn't happened.

Yet. 

A week or two ago a friend posted a picture of a busy board she made for her little girl and I loved it! Not only was it super cute and colorful, it reminded me I needed to get my butt in gear and make one for O. 

Well, this week, for Make it Monday we took a trip to Home Depot and found all kinds of fun stuff for the board! O helped pick much of it out, and was happy to play with the light switch almost the entire time he was in the cart. 

Here is what we came up with:

I'm sure the checkout guy at Home Depot thought I was a crazy person buying all this random stuff. 

Ok, ok, ok. Obviously it isn't done. But the only reason for that is that I thought we had a drill bit we actually don't have, not because of lack of motivation {for a change}!

After we acquired a drill bit that will help this job along, it was pretty easy for Mike to get started. We also knew that on top of making the board itself we would need to add some legs {and then cover everything on the back with felt so there was nothing pokey or scratchy} since the light switches were so much deeper than the board. 

Here is our layout after painting and before drilling: 

So pretty!

I'm excited for this to come together, and I think O is going to be obsessed with it. BUT that will have to wait a few more days. Because this is what happens when you try to drill and chisel cheap wood from Michael's without the proper support underneath:

Suck.

So it appears that this project will span two weeks. And that's ok. Because once we get the board glued back together and everything in place it is going to be awesome! The stuff that is already in place is super fun- I tested it out ;)

On the bright side this setback will give me time to exchange the badge holder thing from green to a color that matches the board better! 

-H